In 1880, the French palaeontologist
Henri Filhol described a
maxilla from the French lime phosphate deposits of
Caylux, considering it as an unknown mustelid genus. He wrote that the
premolars were similar to those of
Proailurus but differed by not being as large. Filhol also recorded that the mandible had 3
incisors, 1
canine, 4
premolars, and 2
molars. He erected the genus name
Stenoplesictis, referencing it after the fossil mustelid genus
Plesictis and creating the species name
Stenoplesictis cayluxi. The etymology is derived from στενός (
Ancient Greek for "narrow") and the genus name
Plesictis, which itself means "near weasel" in Ancient Greek. In 1882, in addition to reaffirming the validity of
S. cayluxi, described as small-sized in relation to other carnivorans, he went on to name a smaller-sized species
S. minor based on several lower jaws with incomplete dental sets. In 1924, the Americans palaeontologists
William Diller Matthew and
Walter W. Granger erected
Cynodictis? elegans based on lower dentition from the
Hsanda Gol Formation of Mongolia, noting that the genus placement is tentative because of the lack of molars. In 1987, German palaeontologist Norbert Schmidt-Kittler erected
S. muhoronii based on a maxilla fragment, deriving it from the Kenyan town of
Muhoroni near where the type locality of Songhor was found.
C? elegans was reclassified to
Stenoplesictis as
S. elegans by Demberelyin Dashzeveg in 1996, who also erected
S. indigenus based on a lower jaw fragment from the eastern
Gobi Desert in Mongolia and
S. simplex based on a fragmented lower jaw from the
Ergilin Dzo Formation. In 1999, French palaeontologists Stéphane Peigné and Louis de Bonis made
S. minor a synonym of
S. cayluxi, arguing that the purported differences between the two species are too minor to justify separation. They also created the species
S. crocheti, stating that it is a species known from cranial evidence from France that was named after J.-Y Crochet, who discovered the Pech du Fraysse locality in 1971. Additionally, they wrote that
S. muhoronii,
S. indigenus,
S. simplex, and S. elegans
did not belong to Stenoplesictis, meaning that they needed to be assigned to other genera. "
S."
muhoronii being a species pending reassignment was followed by Michael Morlo
et al. (or "and colleagues") in 2007. In 2015, Naoko Egi et al. erected the genus
Alagtsavbaatar, reassigning "
S."
indigenus to it as
A. indigenus. They also made
S. simplex a synonym of
A. gracilis, previously classified in
Palaeoprionodon.
S. minor as a species was revived by de Bonis et al. in 2022 when they described a
cranium that they assigned to it. "
Cynodictis"
elegans is not considered to be a species of
Stenoplesictis and is also currently pending a reassignment to another genus. The origins of the Feliformia can be traced back from the Middle
Eocene, with various families diverging from the Late Eocene to the
Oligocene. The Stenoplesictidae is very poorly known but has been recorded from the Oligocene of Eurasia and
Miocene of Africa.
Stenoplesictictis was among the stenoplesictid genera that was known exclusively from Europe during the Oligocene. According to Peigné and de Bonis,
Stenoplesictis is a primitive genus of feliform but is slightly more derived (or evolutionarily recent) than the extant
African palm civet (
Nandinia binotata). == Description ==